ARDUINO BASED SUN TRACKING SOLAR PANEL

Smart System Design Project Report

Submitted By

GOGULAMUDI SRIKANTH REDDY (18VF1M3323)

GANDU NAGA SAI TEJASWI (18VF1M3319)

Under the guidance of

Mrs. B.UJWALA
Assistant Professor

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

SR INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

(Affiliated to Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad, Telangana)
HYDERABAD
2019-2020
SR INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Rampally(v), Keesara(M), R.R Dist, Hyderabad-501301
(Affiliated to JNTUH, Approved by AICTE New Delhi)

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project work entitled “ARDUINO BASED SUN
TRACKING SOLAR PANEL” is being submitted by GOGULAMUDI
SRIKANTH REDDY bearing Roll No:18VF1M3323 and GANDU NAGA SAI
TEJASWI bearing Roll N0:18VF1M3319 for Smart System Design Lab in
Computer Science Engineering is a record of Bonafide work carried out by them
under my guidance. The results of investigation enclosed in this report have been
verified and found satisfactory.

Signature of the Guide External examiner Signature of the HOD

 ABSTRACT

A solar panel is also known as a photovoltaic device which absorbs sunlight as a source of energy
to generate direct current.

When the time changes constantly the light rays from the sun do not fall on the same point on
the solar panel. As we cannot change the direction of light rays from the sun instead of that we
can change the direction of solar panels towards the sun when the time changes constantly. By
using this method, we can draw current from the solar panel without any fluctuations throughout
the day. Advantage of this project is that Solar panel will always follow the sun light will always
face towards the sun to get charge all the time and can provide the supply the maximum power.

In our project, we use three main parts LDR sensor, solar panel, and a DC motor. LDR sensor
calibrates the light and it is placed near the solar panel. The DC motor is used to change the angle
of solar panel in the direction of sunlight. The working of DC motor depends on the output of
the LDR sensor.

The two LDR’s are placed at the two sides of solar panel and the Servo Motor is used to rotate
the solar panel. The servo will move the solar panel towards the LDR whose resistance will be
low, mean towards the LDR on which light is falling, that way it will keep following the light.
And if there is same amount of light falling on both the LDR, then servo will not rotate. The
servo will try to move the solar panel in the position where both LDR’s will have the same
resistance means where same amount of light will fall on both the resistors and if resistance of
one of the LDR will change then it rotates towards lower resistance LDR.

This principle is mainly used in the satellites to move solar panels in the direction of the sun to
charge their batteries.

KEYWORDS: Arduino UNO, Solar Panel, LDR, Battery, Servo Motor, DC Motor, LED

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 CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION 05-07
1.1 Overview of the project 05
1.2 Proposed System 06
2. LITERATURE SURVEY 08-15
2.1 Arduino Uno 08
2.2 Solar Panel 14
3. SYSTEM REQUIRMENTS AND SPECIFICATION 16-17
3.1 Functional requirements 16
3.2 Non-functional requirements 16
3.3 Feasibility analysis 16
3.4 Schedule feasibility 17
3.5 System Requirements 17
3.5.1 Software requirements 17
3.5.2 Hardware requirements 17

4. HARDWARE SPECIFICATIONS 18-26

4.1 Block Diagram 18
4.2 Light Emitting Diode (LED) 19
4.3 Servo Motor 20
4.3.1 Servo-mechanism 22
4.3.2 Working Principle of Servo Motor 22
4.3.3 Continuous Rotation Servo Motors 23
4.4 Light Dependent Resistor or a Photo Resistor 23
4.4.1 Construction of a Photocell 24
4.4.2 Circuit Diagram of a Light Dependent Resistor 25
4.4.3 Working Principle of LDR 26
4.4.4 Applications of LDR 26

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5. RESULT 27-32
5.1 Flow Chart 27
5.2 Prototype 29

6. CONCLUSION 33

7. FUTURE PROSPECTS 34

8. REFERENCE 36

9. APPENDIX 36-37

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 LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NUMBER DESCRIPTION PAGE NUMBER

1.1 Schematic Diagram 07
2.1 Arduino Board 08
2.1.2 Arduino Architecture 09
4.1 Solar Tracking System block diagram 18
4.2 LED 20
4.3 Servo Motor 21
4.4 Photo Resister 24
4.4.1 Construction of photo cell 25
4.4.2 Light Dependent Resister 26

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 I. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Overview of the project:

Renewable energy is energy which originates from natural source such as sunlight, tides, wind
rain, wave and etc. Solar Energy is the energy consequent from the sun through the form of solar
radiation. Solar energy is a very large, inexhaustible source of energy. Today solar energy is the
major eco-friendly & pollution less method of producing the electricity. The power from the sun
interrupted by the earth is approximately 1.8*1011MW, which is many thousands of times larger
than the current consumption rate on the earth of all commercial energy sources. The main
objective of this paper is to improve solar tracker. Solar Tracker is a Device which follows the
movement of the sun as it rotates from the east to the west each day. Using solar trackers upturns
the amount of solar energy which is received by the solar energy collector and develops the
energy output of the heat/electricity which is generated. The solar tracker can be used for more
than a few applications such as solar day- lighting system, solar cells and solar thermal arrays.
The commercial persistence of solar tracker is rise solar panel collection of solar cells. The
development of solar cell technology begins with 1839 examination of French physicist Antoine-
Cesar Becquerel and he observed the photovoltaic effect while experimenting with a compact
electrode in an electrolyte solution. Subsequently he saw a voltage developed when light fell
upon the electrode.

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica the first honest for solar panel was built around 1883 by
Charles Fritts. He used connections formed by coating selenium (a semiconductor) with an
extremely thin layer of gold. Crystalline silicon and gallium arsenide are usual varieties of
materials for solar panels. Gallium arsenide crystals are grown especially for photovoltaic use,
but silicon crystals are obtainable in less- expensive standard ingots, which are produced mostly
for intake in the microelectronics industry. Norway’s Renewable Energy Corporation has
confirmed that it will construct a solar developed plant in Singapore by 2010 - the largest in the
world. This plant will be able to produce products that can create up to 1.5 Gw of energy every
year. That is enough to power several million households at any one time. Last year the world as
whole formed products that could generate just 2 GW in total.

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In 1839 Alexandre Edmond Becquerel discovered the photovoltaic effect which explains how
electricity can be generated from sunlight. He claimed that “shining light on an electrode
submerged in a conductive solution would create an electric current.” However, even after much
research and development subsequent to the discovery, photovoltaic power continued to be very
inefficient. People mainly used solar cells for the purpose of measuring light.

1.2 Proposed System:

In this project include design and construction of an Arduino based solar tracker. This solar
tracker system uses the Arduino board, a servomotor, 2 LDR and 2 resistors to rotate the solar
panel towards the sun or a source of light. In this project LDR was selected since it has no
polarity, and easy to interface with circuit, cheap, reliable and is described by high spectral
sensitivity, so that difference in high intensity is represented immediately by change in its
resistance value.

In constructing the solar tracking system, LDRs are used to determine solar light intensity. The
2 LDRs are connected to pin A0 and A1 on the board. One servo motor is used for rotation part.
Usually the servo has a yellow wire that is used to control the cycle and it must be associated on
pin 9 on the board. When light falls on the LDR, its resistance differs and a potential divider
circuit is used to obtain corresponding voltage value from the resistance of LDR. The voltage
signal is sent to the microcontroller. Constructed on the voltage signal, a corresponding PWM
signal is send to the servo motor which origins it to rotate and finally attains a position where
intensity of light falls on the solar panel is maximum. The schematic diagram of proposed system
as shown in figure 1.1

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Fig: 1.1 Schematic Diagram

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 II.LITERATURE SURVEY

2.1 Arduino Uno

The Arduino Uno (Fig. 2.1) is one of the most popular microcontrollers. It is open source, and is
widely used among hobbyist and professionals for diverse applications. It was used in this design
because it is cheap and performs well, and the team members are very proficient with it. While
the Arduino Uno has 6 analog pins and only 12 usable digital pins, the design requires at least
20 digital pins. Nevertheless, it still needs to be used because it is very well suited for real- time
applications. The Arduino Uno supports a large variety of sensors, actuators, and motors;
moreover, there are many of those devices that are custom made for the Arduino Uno. Two of
these microcontrollers were used to satisfy all of this project’s requirements.

FIG. 2.1 Arduino board

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2.1.2 Arduino Architecture

Arduinos processor basically uses the Harvard architecture where the program code and program
data have separate memory. It consists of two memories- Program memory and the data memory.
The code is stored in the flash program memory, whereas the data is stored in the data memory.
The Atmega328 has 32 KB of flash memory for storing code (of which 0.5 KB is used for the
boot loader), 2 KB of SRAM and 1 KB of EEPROM and operates with a clock speed of 16MHz.

Fig. 2.1.2 Arduino Architecture

2.1.3 Arduino Pin Diagram

A typical example of Arduino board is Arduino Uno. It consists of ATmega328- a 28 pin

microcontrollers.

Arduino Uno consists of 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs),
6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz crystal oscillator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header,
and a reset button.

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Power Jack: Arduino can be power either from the pc through a USB or through external source
like adaptor or a battery. It can operate on a external supply of 7 to 12V. Power can be applied
externally through the pin Vin or by giving voltage reference through the IO Ref pin. Digital
Inputs: It consists of 14 digital inputs/output pins, each of which provide or take up 40mA current.
Some of them have special functions like pins 0 and 1, which act as Rx and Tx respectively, for
serial communication, pins 2 and 3-which are external interrupts, pins 3,5,6,9,11 which provides
PWM output and pin 13 where LED is connected.

Analog inputs: It has 6 analog input/output pins, each providing a resolution of 10 bits. It
provides reference to the analog inputs.

Reset: It resets the microcontroller when low.

2.1.4 Few of basic Arduino functions are

Digital Read(pin): Reads the digital value at the given pin.

Digital Write(pin, value): Writes the digital value to the given pin.
Pin Mode(pin, mode): Sets the pin to input or output mode.
Analog Read(pin): Reads and returns the value.
Analog Write(pin, value): Writes the value to that pin.
Serial begin(baud rate): Sets the beginning of serial communication by setting the bit rate.

Steps to program an Arduino

Programs written in Arduino are known as sketches. A basic sketch consists of 3 parts

1. Declaration of Variables
2. Initialization: It is written in the setup () function.
3. Control code: It is written in the loop () function.

The sketch is saved with UNO extension. Any operations like verifying, opening a sketch, saving
a sketch can be done using the buttons on the toolbar or using the tool menu.

The sketch should be stored in the sketchbook directory.

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Chose the proper board from the tool’s menu and the serial port numbers. Click on the upload
button or chose upload from the tool’s menu. Thus, the code is uploaded by the boot loader onto
the microcontroller.

Special pin functions

Each of the 14 digital pins and 6 analog pins on the Uno can be used as an input or output, using
pinMode(), digitalWrite(), and digital Read() functions. They operate at 5 volts. Each pin can
provide or receive 20 mA as recommended operating condition and has an internal pull-up
resistor (disconnected by default) of 20-50k ohm. A maximum of 40mA is the value that must
not be exceeded on any I/O pin to avoid permanent damage to the microcontroller. The Uno has
6 analogy inputs, labelled A0 through A5, each of which provide 10 bits of resolution (i.e. 1024
different values). By default, they measure from ground to 5 volts, though is it possible to change
the upper end of their range using the AREF pin and the analogReference () function.

In addition, some pins have specialized functions:

Serial / UART: pins 0 (RX) and 1 (TX). Used to receive (RX) and transmit (TX) TTL serial
data. These pins are connected to the corresponding pins of the ATmega8U2 USB-to-TTL
serial chip.

External interrupts: pins 2 and 3. These pins can be configured to trigger an interrupt on a
low value, a rising or falling edge, or a change in value.

PWM (pulse-width modulation): 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11. Can provide 8-bit PWM output with the
analogWrite() function.

SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface): 10 (SS), 11 (MOSI), 12 (MISO), 13 (SCK). These pins
support SPI communication using the SPI library.

TWI (two-wire interface) / A4 or SDA pin and A5 or SCL pin. Support TWI communication
using the Wire library.

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AREF (analog reference): Reference voltage for the analog inputs.

Automatic (software) reset[

Rather than requiring a physical press of the reset button before an upload, the Arduino/Genuine
Uno board is designed in a way that allows it to be reset by software running on a connected
computer. One of the hardware flow control lines (DTR) of the ATmega8U2/16U2 is connected
to the reset line of the ATmega328 via a 100 nano-farad capacitor. When this line is asserted
(taken low), the reset line drops long enough to reset the chip.

This setup has other implications. When the Uno is connected to a computer running Mac OS X
or Linux, it resets each time a connection is made to it from software (via USB). For the following
half-second or so, the bootloader is running on the Uno. While it is programmed to ignore
malformed data (i.e. anything besides an upload of new code), it will intercept the first few bytes
of data sent to the board after a connection is opened.

USB Overcurrent Protection

The Arduino Uno has a resettable polyfused that protects your computer's USB ports from and
overcurrent. Although most computers provide their own internal protection, the fuse provides
an extra layer of protection. If more than 500 mA is applied to the USB port, the fuse will
automatically break the connection until the short or overload is removed.

Physical Characteristics

The maximum length and width of the Uno PCB are 2.7 and 2.1 inches respectively, with the
USB connector and power jack extending beyond the former dimension. Four screw holes allow
the board to be attached to a surface or case. Note that the distance between digital pins 7 and 8
is 160 mil (0.16"), not an even multiple of the 100-mil spacing of the other pins.

Summary

MicrocontrollerATmega328

Operating Voltage 5V

Input Voltage (recommended) 7-12V

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Power

The Arduino Uno can be powered via the USB connection or with an external power supply. The
power source is selected automatically.

External (non-USB) power can come either from an AC-to-DC adapter (wall-wart) or battery.
The adapter can be connected by plugging a 2.1mm centre-positive plug into the board's power
jack. Leads from a battery can be inserted in the Gnd and Vin pin headers of the POWER
connector. The board can operate on an external supply of 6 to 20 volts. If supplied with less
than 7V, however, the 5V pin may supply less than five volts and the board may be unstable. If
using more than 12V, the voltage regulator may overheat and damage the board. The
recommended range is 7 to 12 volts.

The power pins are as follows:

VIN. The input voltage to the Arduino board when it's using an external power source (as
opposed to 5 volts from the USB connection or other regulated power source). You can supply
voltage through this pin, or, if supplying voltage via the power jack, access it through this pin.

5V.This pin outputs a regulated 5V from the regulator on the board. The board can be supplied
with power either from the DC power jack (7 - 12V), the USB connector (5V), or the VIN pin of
the board (7-12V). Supplying voltage via the 5V or 3.3V pins bypasses the regulator, and can
damage your board. We don't advise it.

3V3. A 3.3 volt supply generated by the on-board regulator. Maximum current draw is 50 mA.

GND. Ground pins.

Physical Characteristics

The maximum length and width of the Uno PCB are 2.7 and 2.1 inches respectively, with the
USB connector and power jack extending beyond the former dimension. Four screw holes allow

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the board to be attached to a surface or case. Note that the distance between digital pins 7 and 8
is 160 mil (0.16"), not an even multiple of the 100 mil spacing of the other pins.

2.2 Solar Panel

A solar cell is a device which converts light energy to electrical energy through photovoltaic
effect. Solar cells are the building blocks of photovoltaic modules known as solar panels. In solar
tracking system, the module’s surface tracks the position of the sun automatically as the day runs
by. The position of the sun varies as the sun moves across the sky. For a solar powered equipment
to work best, it must be placed near the sun and the solar tracker can increase the efficiency of
that equipment at any fixed position. Based on sophistication, costs and performance. One
common type of tracker is the heliostat, a movable mirror that reflects the position of the sun to
a fixed location. A solar trackers accuracy depends on the application. Concentrators, especially
in solar cell applications, require a high degree of accuracy to make sure that the concentrated

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sunlight is directed exactly to the powered device, which is close to the focal point of the reflector
or lens. Without tracking, concentrator systems will not work at all, therefore single-axis tracking
is mandatory. Non-concentrating applications require less accuracy, and many are likely to work
without any tracking. However, tracking with great effect can improve both the amount of total
output power produced by a system and that produced during critical system demand periods
(usually late afternoon in hot climates). Researches have been done to improve the energy
production of solar panels. These researches include; double-sided panels, conversion stages
improvement, building panels integration geometrically and so on. Maximum energy is produced
by a solar PV panel when it is positioned at right angle to the sun. For this reason, several
researches developed different types of solar panel tracking systems. Therefore, the primary
purpose of this work is to develop a solar panel tracker based on Arduino advances so as to
enhance the energy production of solar panel.

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 III. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS AND SPECIFICATION
System requirement specification gives the complete description of the behavior about the system
developed by this project. This includes specification of functional and non-functional
requirements of the application. The interaction of the users with the application is represented
with the help of use cases and their analysis. This also includes the description about feasibility,
risk analysis and external interface requirements to accomplish this project.

3.1 Functional Requirements:

The functional requirements will describe the features and functionality of the system. Functional
requirements record the operation that must be done. Functional requirements are based for non-
functional requirements.

3.2 Non- Functional Requirements:

The non-functional requirements define how the system will do certain operation. Non-
functional requirements are usually called as “quality attributes”. The system should also meet
the non-functional requirements along with the functional requirements.

3.3 Feasibility Analysis

The student team initially came up with six designs. Using the feasibility criteria listed earlier, a
feasibility analysis was conducted to determine whether each of the suggested design alternatives
were feasible. Only three designs were found to be feasible and those are presented in this paper.
Each of the three design alternatives requires a fair amount of work to assemble. They each have
tracking mechanisms to track the sun as well as the ability to harness energy from the sun and
use it to charge a battery in less than eight hours. The three-design alternative can also convert
the voltage from the battery to 120 VAC to power electronic devices. Lastly, each design is semi-
portable and able to collect.

Feasibility analysis is the estimation of practically proposed system or project.

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3.4 Schedule feasibility:

The project development was planned to reach designing phase by the end of the semester
which gives a duration of six months. This was enough time to develop a working version of
the end product and the software.

3.5 System Requirements:

The two major kinds of system requirements are hardware and software requirements.

3.5.1 Hardware Requirements:

i. Arduino UNO R3 board

ii. Solar panel

iii. LDR

iv. LED

v. Servo Motor

vi. Bread Board

vii. Laptop

3.5.2 Software Requirements:

i. Arduino application

ii Programming Language: C

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 IV. HARDWARE SPECIFICATIONS

4.1 BLOCK DIAGRAM

The solar tracking system comprises of a solar panel, Arduino microcontroller and sensors. For
this system to operate there must be emission of light through the sun. The LDRs serve as the
sensors to detect the intensity of light entering the solar panels. The LDR then sends information
to the Arduino microcontroller. The servo motor circuit is then constructed. The servo has 3
pins of which the positive side is connected to the +5v of the Arduino microcontroller. The
negative of the servo is connected to the ground. The data point on the servo is connected to
the analog point on the microcontroller. A potentiometer is connected so as to regulate the speed
of the servo motor. The block diagram of the tracking system is as shown in figure 4.1.

Figure 4.1: The solar tracking system block diagram

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This solar panel tracking system simulation was performed using a Proteus software. A
Simulation was carried out to know if the system designed and implemented will perform to our
expectation or not. Simulation process revels the exact circuit diagram and connection of the
system. The simulation carried out is shown in figure 3 which performed as desired. We then
carried out experimental observation between fixed solar panels and the implemented tracking
solar panel to compare the performance enhancement of the implemented tracking solar panels
and the fixed solar panels. We used 6W solar panel made of the same material and manufacturer.

Input Devices:

The input devices of Arduino based sun tracking panel are solar panel, servo motor. The solar
panel is connected to servo motor through mechanical clamps and it is rotated based on the input
of the LDR sensor. LDR are connected to analogue pins of the Arduino and servo motor is rotated
based on those inputs.

Output Devices:

The output devices of the Arduino based sun tracking solar panel also have very limited
capability. Here we will have a few Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) to indicate the health status
of the solar panel, and a motor is connected to rotate fan.

4.2 Light Emitting Diode (LED):

LED is abbreviation of Light Emitting Diode. It’s nothing, but just a combination of
semiconductors which emits light when current pass through it. Over the years, semiconductor
technology has advanced to bigger heights, Light Emitting Devices have also been a part of this
revolution and as a result, now we have LED’s which give better illumination with low power
consumption.

Types of LED– There are many types of LEDs available in the market. As you can see on below
pic there is different LEDs according to our requirement and there has been many other are too

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available depending upon different parameters. And LEDs are chosen according to parameters
like space required by it, size, intensity, colors, etc. Typical LEDs are in size of 3mm, 5mm and
8mm. Nowadays HPLEDs (high power LEDs) are running in market which emits higher
luminous intensity. High power LED’s has very high heat dissipation so LED’s need to mounted
along with a cooling system known as heat sink.

Applications- LED is everywhere because it’s an indicating component used in many areas.
Just look around, if u can’t find even single LED, you are not on earth.

Fig: 4.6 Types of LEDs

Operating parameters & circuit symbol – Above figures show basic elements inside the
LED and circuit symbol which helps in interfacing LED with 8051. Typical current ratings
ranges from around 1 mA to above 20 mA and voltage is at about colors.

i. 1.9 to 2.1 V for red, orange and yellow,

ii. 3.0 to 3.4 V for green and blue, iii. 2.9 to 4.2

Fig 4.2 LED

4.3 Servo Motor

This is nothing but a simple electrical motor, controlled with the help of servomechanism. If the
motor as controlled device, associated with servomechanism is DC motor, then it is commonly
known DC Servo Motor. If the controlled motor is operated by AC it is called AC Servo Motor.

A servo system mainly consists of three basic components - a controlled device, a output sensor,
a feedback system. This is an automatic closed loop control system. Here instead of controlling
a device by applying variable input signal, the device is controlled by a feedback signal generated
by comparing output signal and reference input signal. When reference input signal or command
signal is applied to the system, it is compared with output reference signal of the system produced
by output sensor, and a third signal produced by feedback system. This third signal acts as input
signal of controlled device. This input signal to the device presents as long as there is a logical

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difference between reference input signal and output signal of the system. After the device
achieves its desired output, there will be no longer logical difference between reference input
signal and reference output signal of the system. Then, third signal produced by comparing theses
above said signals will not remain enough to operate the device further and to produce further
output of the system until the next reference input signal or command signal is applied to the
system. Hence the primary task of a servomechanism is to maintain the output of a system at the
desired value in the presence of disturbances.

A servo motor is basically a DC motor (in some special cases it is AC motor) along with some
other special purpose components that make a DC motor a servo. In a servo unit, you will find a
small DC motor, a potentiometer, gear arrangement and an intelligent circuitry. The intelligent
circuitry along with the potentiometer makes the servo to rotate according to our wishes.

As we know, a small DC motor will rotate with high speed but the torque generated by its rotation
will not be enough to move even a light load. This is where the gear system inside a
servomechanism comes into picture. The gear mechanism will take high input speed of the motor
(fast) and at the output we will get a output speed which is slower than original input speed but
more practical and widely applicable.

Fig 4.3 Servo motor

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4.3.1 Servo-mechanism

A servo system mainly consists of three basic components - a controlled device, a output sensor,
a feedback system. This is an automatic closed loop control system. Here instead of controlling
a device by applying variable input signal, the device is controlled by a feedback signal generated
by comparing output signal and reference input signal. When reference input signal or command
signal is applied to the system, it is compared with output reference signal of the system produced
by output sensor, and a third signal produced by feedback system. This third signal acts as input
signal of controlled device. This input signal to the device presents as long as there is a logical
difference between reference input signal and output signal of the system. After the device
achieves its desired output, there will be no longer logical difference between reference input
signal and reference output signal of the system. Then, third signal produced by comparing theses
above said signals will not remain enough to operate the device further and to produce further
output of the system until the next reference input signal or command signal is applied to the
system. Hence the primary task of a servomechanism is to maintain the output of a system at the
desired value in the presence of disturbances.

4.3.2 Working Principle of Servo Motor

A servo motor is basically a DC motor (in some special cases it is AC motor) along with some
other special purpose components that make a DC motor a servo. In a servo unit, you will find a
small DC motor, a potentiometer, gear arrangement and an intelligent circuitry. The intelligent
circuitry along with the potentiometer makes the servo to rotate according to our wishes.

As we know, a small DC motor will rotate with high speed but the torque generated by its rotation
will not be enough to move even a light load. This is where the gear system inside a
servomechanism comes into picture. The gear mechanism will take high input speed of the motor
(fast) and at the output we will get a output speed which is slower than original input speed but
more practical and widely applicable.

Say at initial position of servo motor shaft, the position of the potentiometer knob is such that
there is no electrical signal generated at the output port of the potentiometer. This output port of
the potentiometer is connected with one of the input terminals of the error detector amplifier.

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Now an electrical signal is given to another input terminal of the error detector amplifier. Now
difference between these two signals, one comes from potentiometer and another comes from
external source, will be amplified in the error detector amplifier and feeds the DC motor. This
amplified error signal acts as the input power of the dc motor and the motor starts rotating in
desired direction. As the motor shaft progresses the potentiometer knob also rotates as it is
coupled with motor shaft with help of gear arrangement. As the position of the potentiometer
knob changes there will be an electrical signal produced at the potentiometer port. As the angular
position of the potentiometer knob progresses the output or feedback signal increases. After
desired angular position of motor shaft, the potentiometer knob is reaches at such position the
electrical signal generated in the potentiometer becomes same as of external electrical signal
given to amplifier. At this condition, there will be no output signal from the amplifier to the motor
input as there is no difference between external applied signal and the signal generated at
potentiometer. As the input signal to the motor is nil at that position, the motor stops rotating.
This is how a simple conceptual servo motor works.

4.3.3 Continuous Rotation Servo Motors

Continuous rotation servo motors are actually a modified version of what the servos are actually
meant to do, that is, control the shaft position. The 360° rotation servos are actually made by
changing certain mechanical connections inside the servo. However, certain manufacturer like
parallax sells these servos as well. With the continuous rotation servo, you can only control the
direction and speed of the servo, but not the position. Two of the most popular Servo motor
manufacturers are FUTABA and HITEC.

4.4 Light Dependent Resistor or a Photo Resistor

A Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) or a photo resistor is a device whose resistivity is a function
of the incident electromagnetic radiation. Hence, they are light sensitive devices.

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 Fig. 4.4: Photo Resistor

They are also called as photo conductors, photo conductive cells or simply photocells. They are
made up of semiconductor materials having high resistance. There are many different symbols
used to indicate an LDR, one of the most commonly used symbols is shown in the figure below.
The arrow indicates light falling on it.

Types of light Dependent Resistors

Intrinsic Photo Resistors:

These resistors are pure semiconductor devices like silicon or germanium. When the light falls
on the LDR, then the electrons get excited from the valence band to the conduction band and
number of charge carriers increases.

Extrinsic Photo Resistors:

These devices are doped with impurities and these impurities create a new energy bands above
the valence band. These bands are filled with electrons. Hence this decrease the band gap and
small amount of energy is required in moving them. These resistors are mainly used for long
wavelengths.

4.4.1 Construction of a Photocell

The structure of a light dependent resistor consists of a light sensitive material which is deposited
on an insulating substrate such as ceramic. The material is deposited in zigzag pattern in order to

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obtain the desired resistance& power rating. This zigzag area separates the metal deposited areas
into two regions. Then the ohmic contacts are made on the either sides of the area. The resistances
of these contacts should be as less as possible to make sure that the resistance mainly changes
due to the effect of light only. Materials normally used are cadmium sulphide, cadmium selenide,
indium antimonite and cadmium sulphide. The use of lead and cadmium is avoided as they are
harmful to the environment.

Fig. 4.4.1: Construction of a Photocell

4.4.2 Circuit Diagram of a Light Dependent Resistor

The circuit diagram of a LDR is shown below. When the light intensity is low, then the resistance
of the LDR is high. This stops the current flow to the base terminal of the transistor. So, the LED
does not light. However, when the light intensity onto the LDR is high, then the resistance of the
LDR is low. So current flows onto the base of the first transistor and then the second transistor.
Consequently, the LED lights. Here, a present resistor is used to turn up or down to increase or
decrease the resistance.

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 Fig. 4.4.2 Light Dependent Resistor Circuit

4.4.3 Working Principle of LDR

A light dependent resistor works on the principle of photo conductivity. Photo conductivity is an
optical phenomenon in which the materials conductivity is increased when light is absorbed by
the material. When light falls i.e. when the photons fall on the device, the electrons in the valence
band of the semiconductor material are excited to the conduction band. These photons in the
incident light should have energy greater than the band gap of the semiconductor material to
make the electrons jump from the valence band to the conduction band. Hence when light having
enough energy strikes on the device, more and more electrons are excited to the conduction band
which results in large number of charge carriers. The result of this process is more and more
current starts flowing through the device when the circuit is closed and hence it is said that the
resistance of the device has been decreased. This is the most common working principle of LDR.

4.4.4 Applications of LDR

LDRs has low cost and simple structure. They are often used as light sensors. They are used
when there is a need to detect absences or presences of light like in a camera light meter. Used
in street lamps, alarm clock, burglar alarm circuits, light intensity meters, for counting the
packages moving on a conveyor belt, etc.

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 5.RESULT

5.1 FLOW CHART

The solar tracking system comprises of a solar panel, Arduino microcontroller and sensors. For this
system to operate there must be emission of light through the sun. The LDRs serve as the sensors to detect the
intensity of light entering the solar panels. The LDR then sends information to the Arduino
microcontroller. The servo motor circuit is then constructed. The servo has 3 pins of which the
positive side is connected to the +5v of the Arduino microcontroller. The negative of the servo is
connected to the ground. The data point on the servo is connected to the digital point on the
microcontroller. The block and the flow chart diagrams of the tracking system are shown in figure.
This solar panel tracking system simulation was performed using an Arduino software.

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As a result of the experiment, the solar panel moves in the direction of highest light intensity.
The solar energy absorbed by the solar panel rotates the DC Motor and glows the LED (Light
Emitting Diode).

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5.2 PROTOTYPE

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30
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 6. CONCLUSION

A solar panel tracking system was designed and implemented. The aim of the solar panel tracking
system is to track the position of the sun for better efficiency of the solar panel has shown in the
experimental results. This work can be executed on an industrial scale which be beneficial to
developing countries like Nigeria and Sub-Sahara Africa countries. Our recommendation for
future works is to consider the use of more sensitive and efficient sensors which consume less
power and which are also cost effective. This would increase the efficiency while reducing cost.

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 7. FUTURE PROSPECTS

1. Ni-Cad Battery can be replaced by Li-ion or Lipo, to increase the power backup time.
2. For using large solar panel, it is necessary to increase the capacity of servo motor. We
can use High Torque DC Servo Motor for this purpose.
3. For minimize power loss of circuit then we can use logical circuit.
4. For easily and more efficient control various types of sensors and system can be
introduced with this system such as Accelerometer, GPS, Pattern recognition systematic.
5. Improving this technology future demand of electricity will be filled up and saved
Enormous cost.

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 8. REFERENCE

[1] Gonçalves, P.; Orestes, M. Photovoltaic solar energy: Conceptual framework. Renew.
Sustain. Energy 2017, 74, 590–601.

[2] M.T.A. Khan, S.M.S. Tanzil, R. Rahman, S.M.S. Alam. ‘’Design and Construction of an
Automatic Solar Tracking System.’’ 6th International Conference on Electrical and Computer
Engineering ICECE 2010, 18 – 20 December, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

[3] B. A. Mork, W.W. Weaver, ‘’Smart Grids and Micro Grids, where are they really.’’
Minnesota Power Systems Conference, 3 -5 November 2009, Brooklyn Center, MN, USA.

[4] A.K. Saxena and V. Dutta, “A versatile microprocessor-based controller for solar
tracking,” in Proc. IEEE, 1990,

[5]. Yousef, H.A. Design and implementation of a fuzzy logic computer-controlled sun tracking
system. In Proceedings of IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics, Bled,
Slovenia, Jul. 12-16, 1999

[6] Lo, C.K.; Lim, Y.S.; Rahman, F.A. New integrated simulation tool for the optimum
design of bifacial panel with reflectors panels on a specific site. Renew. Energy 2015, 81, 293–
307.

[7] Van der Meer, D.W.; Widen, J.; Munkhammar, J. Review on probabilistic forecasting of
photovoltaic power production and electricity consumption. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 2017.

[8] Spertino, F.; Ahmad, J.; Ciocia, A.; Di Leo, P. Techniques and experimental results for
performance analysis of photovoltaic modules installed in buildings. Energy Procedia 2017, 111,
944–953.

[9] Quesada, G.; Guillon, L.; Rousse, D.; Mehrtash, M.; Dutil, Y.; Paradis, P.L. Tracking
strategy for photovoltaic solar systems in high latitudes. Energy Convers. Manag. 2015, 103,
147–156.

[10] Miloudi, L.; Acheli, D.; Ahmed, C. Solar tracking with photovoltaic system. Energy
Procedia 2013, 42, 103–112.

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 9. APPENDIX

Source code

#include <Servo.h> //including the library of servo motor

Servo sg90; //initializing a variable for servo named sg90
int initial position = 90; //Declaring the initial position at 90
int LDR1 = A0; //Pin at which LDR is connected
int LDR2 = A1; //Pin at which LDR is connected
int error = 5; //initializing variable for error
int servopin=9;
void setup()
{

sg90.attach(servopin); // attaches the servo on pin 9

pinMode(LDR1, INPUT); //Making the LDR pin as input
pinMode(LDR2, INPUT);
sg90.write(initial_position); //Move servo at 90 degree
delay(2000); // giving a delay of 2 seconds
}

void loop()
{
int R1 = analogRead(LDR1); // reading value from LDR 1
int R2 = analogRead(LDR2); // reading value from LDR 2
int diff1= abs(R1 - R2); // Calculating the difference between the LDR's
int diff2= abs(R2 - R1);

if((diff1 <= error) || (diff2 <= error)) {

//if the difference is under the error then do nothing
} else {
if(R1 > R2)
{
initial position = --initial position; //Move the servo towards 0 degree
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 }
if(R1 < R2)
{
initial position = ++initial position; //Move the servo towards 180 degree
}
}
sg90.write(initial position); // write the position to servo
delay(100);
}

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